Displaying news ticker content in a social networking system

ABSTRACT

A social networking system displays raw stories about a user&#39;s friends&#39; actions in a news ticker as those actions occur. The social networking system is monitored for actions associated with users connected with the target user. The social networking system may be continually monitored such that actions are identified in real-time as they are performed. The news ticker is updated such that stories including the identified actions and the associated connected users are displayed within a news ticker interface. The news ticker interface may be a dedicated portion of the social networking system interface, for example in a column next to a newsfeed. The news ticker interface may be updated in real time as actions associated with connected users are performed. The target user may select a displayed story in the news ticker, and additional information related to the selected story may be displayed, for instance in a separate interface.

BACKGROUND

This invention relates generally to social networking, and in particularto providing a news ticker of actions taken by users within a socialnetworking system.

Social networking systems commonly provide mechanisms allowing users tointeract with each other and with other social networking system objectswithin the social networking systems. A social networking system usermay be an individual or any other entity, such as a business or othernon-person entity. Social networking system information that is trackedand maintained by a social networking system may be stored as a socialgraph, which includes a plurality of nodes that are interconnected by aplurality of edges. A social graph node represents a social networkingsystem object that can act on and/or be acted upon by another node. Asocial networking system object may be, for example, a social networkingsystem user, non-person entities, content items, groups, socialnetworking system pages, events, messages, concepts, or other socialnetworking system objects, such as movies, bands, or books.

An edge between nodes in a social graph represents a particular kind ofconnection between the nodes, which may result from an action that wasperformed by one of the nodes on the other node. Examples of suchactions by a social networking system user include listing socialnetworking system objects in a user profile, creating or uploadingcontent items to the social networking system, subscribing to or joininga social networking system group or fan page, sending a message toanother social networking system user, making a purchase associated witha social networking system node, commenting on a content item, orRSVP'ing to an event. Thus, if a first user establishes a connectionwith a second user in the social networking system, the users may berepresented by nodes, and the connection may be represented by an edgeconnecting the nodes. Further, if the first user sends a message to thesecond user or tags the second user in a picture stored by the socialnetworking system, the message and tagging may be represented byadditional edges between the nodes. Alternatively, the message andpicture may be represented by nodes, which are connected by edges to thenodes representing the first and second user. A social graph, therefore,may be used to track the interactions between social networking systemobjects.

Social networking systems also commonly provide mechanisms displayingthe interactions of other users in the social networking systems,referred to herein as “news stories” or simply “stories.” Stories may bedisplayed in a social networking system graphical user interface (GUI)that displays the acting user, the action taken by the acting user, andthe object acted upon by the acting user. For instance, if a user namedMeredith uploads a photograph of her cat, the social networking systemGUI may display the photograph in conjunction with the text “Meredithposted an image” and an image of Meredith. In this example, the actinguser is Meredith, the action taken by Meredith is the uploading of thephoto, and the object acted upon by Meredith is the photo. Likewise, ifa user named Molly comments on the photograph, the social networkingsystem GUI may display the full text of the comment below the photographalong with the text “Molly comments:” and an image of Molly. Additionalinformation may be displayed in conjunction with a story. For example,if a story is about a user's RSVP to an event, details of the event maybe displayed. Likewise, if a story is about a user's comment on a video,the video may be displayed.

Social networking systems may display an ordered plurality of storieswithin a portion of the social networking system GUI dedicated to thedisplay of social networking system stories, referred to herein as a“newsfeed.” Social networking systems often order stories according toan algorithmically-determined relevance to a viewing user, prioritizingthe most relevant stories in a newsfeed (stories that the viewing useris likely to be interested in viewing), and preventing stories below arelevance threshold from being displayed. Algorithms are imperfect meansof determining relevance, however, and thus certain stories that aviewing user would otherwise want to view are mistakenly determined tobe too irrelevant to display in the newsfeed. Note that storiesdisplayed in a newsfeed may be referred to herein as “feed stories.”

Displaying all stories related to a viewing user (actions by usersassociated with the viewing user) in a newsfeed chronologically ensuresthat all relevant stories are displayed to a viewing user but is animpractical option, as typically only a subset of the stories related toa viewing user are relevant to the viewing user. In such cases, aviewing user may become frustrated by navigating all stories related tothe viewing user in order to find stories of the most interest to theviewing user. Further, newsfeeds are static and require manualrefreshing to display the most recent stories. In addition, newsfeedsare typically displayed in a dedicated social networking system page,and are not viewable when a user is viewing a different part of thesocial networking system. Finally, the amount of information displayedin conjunction with stories often increases the amount of socialnetworking system GUI space required to display the story, resulting ina greater amount of content that a viewing user is required to navigateand increasing the amount of time a viewing user is required to spendsearching for relevant stories.

SUMMARY

Embodiments of the invention provide a news ticker that provides storiesto a target user within a social networking system. The target user mayrequest news ticker content, for instance by requesting a socialnetworking system page containing the news ticker. The news tickercontent request may be continuous, for instance for as long as a newsticker is displayed to the target user. News ticker content, or “tickerstories”, includes actions performed within the social networking systemon one or more social networking system objects. Actions within thesocial networking system include communications, uploading photos orother content items, playing media items, and the like.

The social networking system is monitored for actions of users connectedto the target user. Connected users may include users who haveestablished connections with the target user. When a monitored action isidentified, the news ticker is updated to display a story associatedwith the identified action and the associated connected user. The storyis displayed within a news ticker interface, and may be displayed andupdated in real-time, without input by the target user. The news tickerinterface may include a dedicated portion of a social networking systemGUI, such as a column, and stories may be ordered within the interfacechronologically, with the most recent stories displayed at the top ofthe interface. The news ticker may also be displayed in the sameinterface as a newsfeed, where the news ticker includes all storiesabout other users' actions while the newsfeed contains selected storiesthat may be aggregated around an object or action.

The target user may select a story displayed in the news ticker. Inresponse, additional information associated with the story may bedisplayed, for instance in an additional interface such as a window orcolumn adjacent to the news ticker interface. The additional informationmay include communications associated with the selected story, thecontent items or media items associated with the selected story, and thelike. The additional information may also be limited to information thatis socially relevant to the target user, such as communications fromfriends of the target user.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the creation and display of newsstories in a social networking system ticker, according to oneembodiment.

FIG. 2 is a high level block diagram of a system environment suitablefor displaying news stories in a news ticker, according to oneembodiment.

FIG. 3 is an example screenshot illustrating a social networking systeminterface for displaying news stories in a newsfeed and a news ticker,according to one embodiment.

FIG. 4 is an example screenshot illustrating the interface of FIG. 3,along with additional information for a selected news ticker story,according to one embodiment.

FIG. 5 is an example screenshot illustrating the interface of FIG. 3,along with additional information for a selected news ticker story,according to one embodiment.

FIG. 6 is an example screenshot illustrating the interface of FIG. 3,along with additional information for a selected news ticker story,according to one embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart illustrating a process for displaying newsstories in a social networking system ticker interface, according to oneembodiment.

The figures depict various embodiments of the present invention forpurposes of illustration only. One skilled in the art will readilyrecognize from the following discussion that alternative embodiments ofthe structures and methods illustrated herein may be employed withoutdeparting from the principles of the invention described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Overview

A social networking system may include a web-based interface comprisinga series of inter-connected pages displaying and allowing users tointeract with social networking system objects and other users. Forexample, a social networking system may display a page for each socialnetworking system user including objects and information entered by orrelated to the social networking system user (the user's “profile”).Social networking systems may also contain pages containing pictures orvideos, dedicated to concepts, dedicated to users with similar interests(“groups”), or containing communications or social networking systemactivity to, from or by other users.

Social networking system pages may contain links to other socialnetworking system pages, and may include additional capabilities such assearch, real-time communication, content-item uploading, purchasing,advertising, and any other web-based technology or ability. It should benoted that a social networking system interface may be accessible from aweb browser or a non-web browser application, such as a dedicated socialnetworking system mobile device or computer application. Accordingly,“page” as used herein may be a web page, an application interface ordisplay, a widget displayed over a web page or application, a box orother graphical interface, an overlay window on another page (whetherwithin or outside the context of a social networking system), or a webpage external to the social networking system with a social networkingsystem plug in or integration capabilities.

As discussed above, social networking system information that is trackedand maintained by a social networking system may be stored as a socialgraph, which includes a plurality of nodes that are interconnected by aplurality of edges (representing interactions, connections,communications or other measures of relatedness between nodes). A socialgraph node may represent a social networking system object that can acton and/or be acted upon by another node. An edge between nodes in asocial graph represents any kind of connection or interaction betweenthe two nodes, which may result from an action that was performed by oneof the nodes on the other node. In this description, reference to anedge connecting two objects in a social graph is intended to refer to anedge connecting the nodes representing each of the two objects.

A social networking system object may be a social networking systemuser, non-person entity, content item, group, social networking systempage, location, application, time or date, concept or other socialnetworking system object, such as a movie, a band, or a book. Contentitems may be anything that a social networking system user or otherobject may create, upload, edit or interact with, such as messages,queued messages (e.g., email), text and SMS (short message service)messages, comment messages, messages sent using any other suitablemessaging technique, an HTTP link, HTML files, images, videos, audioclips, documents, document edits, calendar entries or events, and othercomputer-related files. Each social networking system object may berepresented by a distinct social networking system node in a socialgraph.

Online social networking systems allow users to associate themselves,establish connections with and interact with other users of the socialnetworking system. When two users establish a connection, they become“friends” (or, “connected”) within the context of the social networkingsystem. Being friends in a social networking system may allow usersaccess to more information about each other than would otherwise beavailable to unconnected users. For instance, being friends may allow auser to view a profile page of another user, to see another user'sfriends, or to view actions taken within the social networking system byanother user. In addition, being friends may allow a user greater accessto interact with another user. For instance, being friends in thecontext of a social networking system may allow a user greater access tocommunicate with another user, to communicate about another user, toshare objects and other information with another user, to comment onobjects associated with another user, to endorse objects associated withanother user, and so forth. Each association, established connection andinteraction between two users is represented in the social graph by anedge connecting the users.

A social networking system may allow a user to establish a variety oftypes of connections with another user. For example, users may establishvarious personal relationships with another user in a social networkingsystem, such as a friendship, a romantic relationship (such as dating,engagement, or marriage), or a familial relationship (such asparent/child, grandparent/grandchild, aunt/uncle/niece/nephew, orcousin). In addition, users may establish non-personal relationships,such as employee/employer/co-worker or student/teacher/classmate. Asocial networking system may also allow a user to establish details ofrelationships, such as anniversaries or other relationship milestones.Each type of established connection may be represented by an edge in thesocial graph, and more than one edge may connect two users with anestablished relationship. For example, if two users are cousins andco-workers, a first edge may connect the users for establishing aconnection in the social networking system, a second edge may connectthe users for indicating that they are cousins, and a third edge mayconnect the users for indicating that they are co-workers.

A social networking system may allow users to communicate both withinand external to the social networking system. For example, within asocial networking system, a first user may send a second user a message,an email, an instant message, a voice call, and a video chat call.Communications may originate from within the social networking systembut be transmitted external to the social networking system, forexample, an email sent from within the social networking system but sentto the personal email account of another. Communications may alsooriginate externally to the social networking system but be transmittedwithin the social networking system, for example, an instant messagesent from instant messaging software and transmitted to an internalsocial networking system instant messaging interface. Further, a firstuser may comment on the profile page of a second user, or may comment oncontent items associated with a second user, such as content itemsuploaded by the second user. In addition, a user may communicate aboutanother user by tagging the user in a message or content item. A usermay also communicate without directing the communication at a particularother user by, for example, posting a status or message to the user'sprofile. Each communication may be represented by a node in the socialgraph, and an edge may connect the communicating users to each other andto the communication's node.

A social networking system may allow a user to upload pictures. Eachpicture may be represented by a node in the social graph, and an edgemay connect the user who uploaded the picture to the picture. The socialnetworking system may allow users to tag pictures by associating apicture or a location within the picture with the identity of a socialnetworking system user. For example, a first user may recognize that anuploaded picture is an image of several friends, and may associate theidentities of each friend with the location within the image of eachfriend's face. In addition, the social networking system may allow usersto comment on, link to, share, communicate about, or edit the picture.In the social graph, an edge may connect users who have viewed, tagged,been tagged in, commented on, linked to, communicated about, or editedthe picture to the node representing the picture. Likewise, an edge mayconnect users who have performed similar interactions with or beentagged in a video, document, song, or any other social networking systemobject to the node representing the video.

A social networking system may allow a user to endorse social networkingsystem objects. In one embodiment, endorsement is expressed by clickinga “like” button associated with a social networking system object. Theendorsement of an object may be displayed in conjunction with theobject. For example, if a user likes an image uploaded to the socialnetworking system, a message may be displayed below the image indicatingthat the user liked the image. A social networking system user mayendorse (and otherwise interact) with social networking system objectsoutside of the context of the social networking system's pages that areconnected to or associated with the social networking system. Forinstance, an article on a news web site might have a “like” button thatusers of the social networking system can click on to express approvalof the article. In the social graph, an endorsement may be representedby an edge connecting the endorsing user to the endorsed object.

A social networking system may allow a user to recommend or share asocial networking system object with another user. For example, a firstuser may recommend that a second user view a content item, attend anevent, establish a connection with another user, or a join a groupthrough the social networking system interface. Likewise, a user mayshare a content item with another user, for example, by clicking a linkwhich emails the content item or otherwise brings the content item tothe attention of the user. An edge may connect the first user and thesecond user, and may connect the first user and the second user to therecommended object. A second edge may connect the social networkingsystem object to the second user if the second user accepts therecommendation.

A social networking system may allow users to create and scheduleevents. An event may have an associated real-world location, such as aconcert, a party, a parade, or a sporting event, or may not have areal-world location, such as an online fundraising drive or an onlinesale. A social networking system may allow users to utilize socialnetworking system calendar functionality when creating events, inviteother users, create event descriptions, and utilize social networkingsystem location functionality. Edges may connect the user who createdthe event, the users invited to the event, and the event itself. Asecond edge may connect the event to users who RSVP to the event, and athird edge may connect the event to users who use location-basedfunctionality to check in to the event (for instance, users who use asocial networking system application on a mobile phone withlocation-detection functionality such as GPS at the time of the event toindicate that they are in attendance of the event). Similarly, an edgemay connect a user to any location the user checks in to usinglocation-detection functionality.

A social networking system may allow a user to enter and displayinformation related to the user's interests, education and workexperience, contact information, and other biographical information inthe user's profile page. Each school, employer, interest (for example,music, books, movies, television shows, games, political views,philosophy, religion, groups, or fan pages), geographical location,network, or any other information contained in a profile page may berepresented by an object in the social graph. Further, an edge mayconnect a user with any object representing information in the user'sprofile page. For example, if in a profile page a user indicatesattendance at “the University of Idaho,” lists “Anchorman” as a favoritemovie, and lists “Post Falls, Id.” as a hometown, the user may beconnected by an edge to objects representing the University of Idaho,Anchorman, and Post Falls, Id.

A social networking system may allow a user to play media and gameswithin the social networking system. Edges connect the nodesrepresenting each media item and game played with the node representingthe user playing the media item or game. Additional nodes may representmilestones within media items and games. For example, if a user views aparticular scene in a movie, an edge may connect the user's node with anode representing the scene in the movie. Likewise, if a user completesa particular level in a game, performs an in-game action, obtains aparticular in-game item, or achieves a particular score, an edge mayconnect the user's node with nodes representing such milestones. Inaddition, a social networking system may allow users to share media andgame milestones from media and games played outside the context of thesocial networking system using, for example, a social networking systemplug-in. In such embodiments, an edge connects the user to nodesrepresenting the external media and game milestones.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the creation and display of newsstories in a social networking system ticker, according to oneembodiment. A social networking system 100 includes a social networkingsystem GUI 120 and a social networking system storage module 140. Thesocial networking system GUI 120 includes, among other components, anews ticker module 125 and an action interface module 130. The socialnetworking storage module 140 includes a friend data storage module 145and a social graph data storage module 150.

In the embodiment of FIG. 1, a target user 105 accesses the socialnetworking system 100 through the social networking system GUI module120. The target user 105 may be a registered user of the socialnetworking system 100, and may access the social networking system 100through a client device, described below in greater detail. The targetuser 105 may access the social networking system news ticker through thenews ticker module 125. As used herein, a “news ticker” or “ticker”refers to an interface within the social networking system 100 in whichstories are displayed to a target user. The ticker may be a separatesocial networking system page, or may be displayed in a portion ofsocial networking system GUI. In one embodiment, the ticker is displayedin a universal social networking system GUI displayed within all or mostsocial networking system pages. The ticker may be moveable orcustomizable, allowing users to relocate the ticker, to resize theticker, to adjust the display settings of the ticker, or to disable,minimize or hide the ticker. The target user 105 may request news tickerstories passively by merely accessing a social networking system page onwhich a news ticker is displayed. Alternatively, the target user 105 mayexplicitly request news ticker content by selecting a button, link orother option within a social networking system page. It should be notedthat the target user 105 may request news ticker content simply bycontinuing to access a social networking system page on which a newsticker is displayed. For example, if a target user 105 opens a socialnetworking system page on which a news ticker is displayed and doesn'tclose the page, the news ticker may continually update in response tothe continual requests for news ticker content from the target user 105stemming from maintaining the open page containing the ticker.

The news ticker displays stories to the target user. As discussed above,the stories displayed by the news ticker include the actions of usersconnected to the target user. In the embodiment of FIG. 1, acting user A110A, acting user B 110B, and action user C 110C (collectively, “actingusers 110”) perform actions within the social networking system 100 viathe action interface 130. Acting users 110 may be connected to thetarget user 105 explicitly, such as being friends within the context ofthe social networking system 100, or may be inexplicitly connected tothe target user 105, such as by having biographical information orfriends in common with the target user 105.

The acting users 110 may perform a variety of actions within the socialnetworking system, including but not limited to: sending messages withinor external to the social networking system 100, liking or otherwiseendorsing a social networking system object, becoming friends withanother social networking system user, playing a game, listening to asong, watching a video, editing a document, posting a status update, andchanging biographical information within the social networking system.Additional actions may be performed within the social networking system,for example those actions which are discussed above and otherwiseherein, all of which may be displayed to a target user 105 in a newsticker. The acting users 110 may be merely associated with an actionperformed in the social networking system 100, and this association maybe displayed to the target user 105 in a news ticker. For example, anacting user 110 may be tagged in a photograph by a tagging user who isnot connected to the target user 105. In such an embodiment, as anacting user 110 connected to the target user was associated with anaction performed within the social networking system, the photo taggingaction may be displayed to the target user 105 in a ticker. Asdisplayed, the action interface 130 is a component within the socialnetworking system GUI module 120, but it should be noted that actionsmay be performed by acting users 110 outside of the context of thesocial networking system 100 that are still tracked and stored by thesocial networking system 100.

When an acting user 110 connected to the target user 105 performs anaction using the action interface 130 (or is associated with a performedaction), the action is stored in the social graph data storage module150 as an edge connecting the acting user 110 and any other objectsassociated with the action. For example, if the acting user 110 uploadsan image to the social networking system 100, an edge is stored in thesocial graph data storage module 150 connecting the acting user's nodeand the node representing the uploaded image. Likewise, if a usercomments on the acting user's wall, an edge is stored in the socialgraph data storage module 150 connecting the user's node to the actinguser's node. Generally, each action performed in the social networkingsystem 100 involves a user and at least one other object (whether it oneor more other users, a content item, a concept, etc.). Actions involvingacting users 110 are thus stored in the social graph data storage module150 as edges connecting one or more acting users 110 to one or moreother objects. It should be noted that in some embodiments, storedactions involve the target user 105, for example, if an acting user 110shares a link with the target user 105. Actions are stored in the socialgraph data storage module 150 with a timestamp indicating the time theactions occurred.

When the target user 105 requests news ticker content, the news tickermodule 125 identifies social networking system users (such as the actingusers 110) connected to the target user 105 using the friend datastorage module 145. In one embodiment, the identities of users who haveexplicitly established connections with the target user 105 areretrieved. Alternatively, users with common friends, common biographicalinformation, or any other users related to the target user 105 may beidentified. When users connected to the target user 105 are identified,actions performed by or involving the identified users are identifiedusing the social graph data storage module 150. The identified actionsof users connected to the target user 105 include the actions performedby the users connected to the target user 105, and the identities of anyobjects associated with the actions. For example, an identified actionmay be the tagging of User B by User A in a photograph.

The news ticker module 125 retrieves the identified actions of actingusers 110 connected to the target user 105 and displays the identifiedactions as stories within the news ticker interface. The displayedstories may be limited to text, either plain or URL-linked. Using theabove example, the text “User B was tagged in a photo by User A” mayappear in the news ticker interface. The stories displayed in the newsticker interface may be organized chronologically, by importance orrelevance, or by any other suitable organization. In one embodiment, thenews ticker displays a story for every action with which a userconnected to the target user 105 is associated.

In one embodiment, the news ticker module 125 continually queries thesocial graph data storage module 150 for actions performed by the actingusers 110 connected to the target user 105. In this embodiment, the newsticker module 125 retrieves actions performed by the acting users 110 inreal-time, and displays these actions in the news ticker interface. Fromthe perspective of the target user 105, the news ticker updatesautomatically. In the event that stories are displayed chronologicallyin the news ticker, the news ticker continually displays the most recentaction performed by or involving an acting user 110, for instance at thetop of the news ticker interface. In this embodiment, each time a storyinvolving a subsequent action is displayed, the story is displayed atthe top of the news ticker interface and all older stories are shifteddownward within the interface. The news ticker interface itself maydisplay a limited number of stories, and when a particular story getsshifted to the bottom-most position within the interface (indicatingthat the particular story is the oldest story displayed within theinterface), the next time a new story is displayed, the oldest story isshifted downward and out of the news ticker interface such that theoldest story is no longer displayed within the interface.

Clicking on or otherwise selecting a story displayed in the news tickermay cause additional information associated with the selected story tobe displayed. Selecting a story may cause actions related to theselected story to be displayed. For example, clicking on a storyinvolving a photograph uploaded by User A may display comments on thephoto posted by other users. Clicking on a story involving a commentposted by User A onto User B's wall may display other comments displayedon User B's wall, or may display a history of comments between User Aand User B onto each other's walls.

Selecting a story may cause objects related to the story to bedisplayed. For example, selecting a story about a comment left on aphotograph by User B may cause the photograph to be displayed, alongwith all communications about the photograph in, for example, inchronological order. The news ticker module 125 retrieves thisadditional information from the social graph data storage module 150.The social graph data storage module 150, in response to a query fromthe news ticker module 125, identifies actions and objects related tothe selected story, which are then displayed to the target user 105.

Selecting a story associated with a media item, such as a song or avideo, may cause the media item to be displayed in an interactive mediaplayer, allowing the target user 105 to play the media item, and maycause additional information about the media item to be displayed, suchas the media item band, actors, directors, year of creation, and a linkor other information about where to purchase the media item. Selecting astory associated with a social networking system game may cause the gameto be displayed in a playable interface, or may cause additionalinformation about the game to be displayed, such as the maker of thegame, top scores associated with the game, or friends who have playedthe game.

Selecting a story associated with an event may cause additionalinformation about the event to be displayed, such as the location of theevent, the purpose of the event, the time and date of the event, and theidentities of any friends attending the event. In one embodiment, if thetarget user 105 has been invited to the event, or if the event is opento everyone, an RSVP interface is displayed in response to selecting thestory associated with the event. Selecting a story associated with alocation, for example User A checking into a coffee shop, may displayadditional information about the location, a map to the location, or theidentities of other friends who have checked into the same location.

Selecting a story associated with a user altering the his or herbiographic information, such as adding a school or employer, changinghis/her political or religious views, changing his/her relationshipstatus, etc., may display additional information about the biographicinformation, or may display the identities of users with commonbiographic information. Selecting a story associated with a user joininga group, following another user, or joining a fan page may displayadditional information about the group, other user, or fan page, such asa link to the group page, the other user's page, or the fan page, or maydisplay the identities of friends who have also joined the group, followthe other user, or joined the fan page.

Selecting a story associated with a user becoming friends with anotheruser within the social networking system may display additionalinformation about the other user, may display the identities of commonfriends with the other user, and may display an interface to becomefriends with the other user. Selecting a story associated with a userliking a social networking system object may display the object, maydisplay additional information related to the object, may display a linkto the object, may display other friends who have liked the object, andmay display an interface for the target user 105 to like the object.

In one embodiment, the additional information is displayed within thenews ticker interface, for example, below the selected story, shiftingall other stories in the news ticker downward. Alternatively, theadditional information may be displayed in a separate interface, forinstance in a pop-up bubble next to the news ticker interface, anadditional ticker next to the news ticker, or in an area of the socialnetworking system GUI 120 dedicated to additional news storyinformation. In one example embodiment, the news ticker is displayed ina first column within a social networking system page, and theadditional information associated with selected news ticker stories aredisplayed in a second column adjacent to the first column. Clicking onor otherwise selecting a story displayed in the news ticker may directthe target user 105 to a separate social networking system page displayadditional information related to the story.

The additional information displayed as a result of selecting a storydisplayed in a news ticker may be limited to or organized by informationdetermined to be relevant to the target user 105. For example, if thetarget user 105 selects a story associated with a photograph, thephotograph as well as all comments on the photograph may be displayed,or the displayed comments may be limited to comments by users associatedwith the target user 105 (such as friends of the target user 105). Inidentifying additional information associated with a selected story todisplay to the target user 105, the news ticker module 125 may query thesocial graph data storage module 150 to identify actions and objectsrelated to the selected story, may query the friend data storage module145 to identify users connected to the target user 105, and may filterthe identified actions and objects using the identified users toidentify actions and objects related to the selected story which aresocially relevant to the target user 105.

System Architecture

FIG. 2 is a high level block diagram of a system environment suitablefor displaying news stories in a news ticker, according to oneembodiment. The system environment includes client devices 210 andsocial networking system 100 that communicate through a connectingnetworking 200. Although three client devices 210 are shown in FIG. 2,any number of client devices may communicate with the social networkingsystem 100, for example thousands or millions.

The connecting network may be the Internet, a local area network, awireless network, a cellular network, or any other network that allowscommunication between modules. The connecting network 200 may usestandard communications technologies and/or protocols. In alternativeconfigurations, different and/or additional modules can be included inthe system. In addition, the connecting network 200 may include acombination of networks. For example, in the embodiment where a clientdevice 210 is a mobile phone, the connecting network 200 may include acellular phone wireless network which interfaces with the Internet,allowing the mobile phone to connect with a social networking system'sweb servers.

The client devices 210 may include any type of device capable of sendingor receiving communications to and from the social networking system100, such as a mobile phone, a laptop, a netbook, a tablet, a desktopcomputer, or a television. A user of a client device 210 interacts withthe social networking system 100 via an application, such as a webbrowser or a native application, to perform social networking systemoperations such as browsing content, posting and sending messages,establishing connections with other users, uploading pictures and othercontent items, to transmit and receive any other communications to andfrom the social networking system 100, and to perform any other socialnetworking system actions.

The social networking system 100 as illustrated includes a networkinterface 220, a social networking system GUI module 120, a news tickermodule 125, an action interface module 130, a friend data storage module145, and a social graph data storage module 150. In alternativeembodiments, the social networking system 100 includes fewer,additional, or different components than are illustrated in FIG. 2. Forexample, the friend data storage module 145 and the social graph datastorage module 150 may be combined into a single storage module. Thenetworking interface 220 manages all communications and provides theinterface between the client devices 210 and the social networkingsystem 100.

The pages of the social networking system 100 may be hosted on one ormore web servers, not illustrated in FIG. 2. These pages may includeinformation retrieved from one or more social networking systemdatabases, such as the friend data storage module 145, the social graphdata storage module 150, and other databases not illustrated in FIG. 2.Other components required to operate a website, a data center, a dataservice and the like may additionally be included within the socialnetworking system 100, but are also not illustrated in FIG. 2, for thepurposes of simplicity.

Example News Ticker Layouts

FIG. 3 is an example screenshot illustrating a social networking systeminterface for displaying news stories in a newsfeed and a news ticker,according to one embodiment. In the embodiment of FIG. 3, a socialnetworking system newsfeed 300 is displayed for the user Jane Smith. Thenewsfeed 300 includes various stories determined to be relevant to theuser Jane Smith, for instance, a question asked by User A (withassociated answer interface), and a picture uploaded by User B (withlikes by User C and others, as well as a comment by User D). Adjacent tothe newsfeed is a news ticker 310. The news ticker 310 includes variousstories by users connected to Jane Smith, in chronological order. Thenews ticker 310 may update automatically; as a new story is identified(based on an action involving a user connected to Jane Smith occurringsubsequent to the display of the most recent story), the story isdisplayed in the news ticker 310.

FIG. 4 is an example screenshot illustrating the interface of FIG. 3,along with additional information for a selected news ticker story,according to one embodiment. In the embodiment of FIG. 4, it is assumedthat the user Jane Smith selected the news ticker story 400, “User Ecommented on John Williams' link.” In response, the window 410 isdisplayed adjacent to the news ticker 310, and over the newsfeed 300.The window 410 contains additional information related to the story 400.In the embodiment of FIG. 4, the additional information includes theoriginal link posted by John Williams, a picture of John Williams, andall comments made on the posted link, including a comment by User M, acomment by User N, and a comment by User E (the comment associated withthe story 400). In one embodiment, only comments by friends of JaneSmith are displayed in the window 410.

FIG. 5 is an example screenshot illustrating the interface of FIG. 3,along with additional information for a selected news ticker story,according to one embodiment. In the embodiment of FIG. 5, it is assumedthat the user Jane Smith selected the news ticker story 500, “User Hcommented on Gary Johnson's photo.” In response, the window 510 isdisplayed, containing the photo on which User H commented, along withthe comment by User H, the number of people who have “liked” the photo,and the identity of at least one user who “liked” the photo, namely UserO. The window 510 may contain a link to the gallery containing thedisplayed photo, or may display the identities of individuals in thephoto upon selection of the photo.

FIG. 6 is an example screenshot illustrating the interface of FIG. 3,along with additional information for a selected news ticker story,according to one embodiment. In the embodiment of FIG. 6, it is assumedthat the user Jane Smith selected the news ticker story 600, “User LRSVP'd to the event ‘Henry's Birthday (Bash!)’.” In response, the window610 is displayed, containing the title of the event ‘Henry's BirthdayBash!’, a description of the event, a time and location of the event,and an interface to RSVP to the event or to comment on the event (“RSVP”and “Comment” buttons). In addition, the window 610 displays the numberof people who have RSVP'd to the event, the identity of one of thepeople who RSVP'd (User L), and a comment by User P. In one embodiment,the window 610 may also contain a map to the location of the event.

Operation

FIG. 7 is a flow chart illustrating a process for displaying newsstories in a social networking system ticker interface, according to oneembodiment. A request is received 700 from a target user for news tickercontent. The request may include accessing a social networking systempage containing a news ticker, and the request may be continual so longas the target user continues to access the social networking systempage. In response to such a request, the social networking system ismonitored 710 for actions associated with users connected to the targetuser. Monitoring for actions in a social networking system may becontinual and real-time.

One or more monitored actions of users connected to the target user areidentified 720. Actions include becoming connected to another user inthe social networking system, uploading or commenting on a photograph,playing a game within the social networking system, RSVPing to an eventin the social networking system, and playing a media content within thesocial networking system. Responsive to identifying one or moremonitored actions, updating 730 the news ticker in real-time to displaythe identified action and the associated connected user as a storywithin the news ticker interface. Responsive to receiving a selection ofthe displayed story by the target user, additional information relatedto the story is displayed 740 to the target user.

SUMMARY

The foregoing description of the embodiments of the invention has beenpresented for the purpose of illustration; it is not intended to beexhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed.Persons skilled in the relevant art can appreciate that manymodifications and variations are possible in light of the abovedisclosure.

Some portions of this description describe the embodiments of theinvention in terms of algorithms and symbolic representations ofoperations on information. These algorithmic descriptions andrepresentations are commonly used by those skilled in the dataprocessing arts to convey the substance of their work effectively toothers skilled in the art. These operations, while describedfunctionally, computationally, or logically, are understood to beimplemented by computer programs or equivalent electrical circuits,microcode, or the like. Furthermore, it has also proven convenient attimes, to refer to these arrangements of operations as modules, withoutloss of generality. The described operations and their associatedmodules may be embodied in software, firmware, hardware, or anycombinations thereof.

Any of the steps, operations, or processes described herein may beperformed or implemented with one or more hardware or software modules,alone or in combination with other devices. In one embodiment, asoftware module is implemented with a computer program productcomprising a computer-readable medium containing computer program code,which can be executed by a computer processor for performing any or allof the steps, operations, or processes described.

Embodiments of the invention may also relate to an apparatus forperforming the operations herein. This apparatus may be speciallyconstructed for the required purposes, and/or it may comprise ageneral-purpose computing device selectively activated or reconfiguredby a computer program stored in the computer. Such a computer programmay be stored in a non-transitory, tangible computer readable storagemedium, or any type of media suitable for storing electronicinstructions, which may be coupled to a computer system bus.Furthermore, any computing systems referred to in the specification mayinclude a single processor or may be architectures employing multipleprocessor designs for increased computing capability.

Embodiments of the invention may also relate to a product that isproduced by a computing process described herein. Such a product maycomprise information resulting from a computing process, where theinformation is stored on a non-transitory, tangible computer readablestorage medium and may include any embodiment of a computer programproduct or other data combination described herein.

Finally, the language used in the specification has been principallyselected for readability and instructional purposes, and it may not havebeen selected to delineate or circumscribe the inventive subject matter.It is therefore intended that the scope of the invention be limited notby this detailed description, but rather by any claims that issue on anapplication based hereon. Accordingly, the disclosure of the embodimentsof the invention is intended to be illustrative, but not limiting, ofthe scope of the invention, which is set forth in the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: receiving a request at asocial networking system for news ticker content from a target user;monitoring for actions associated with users connected to the targetuser in the social networking system; responsive to identifying amonitored action associated with a connected user, updating a newsticker in real time to display the identified action and the associatedconnected user as a story within a news ticker interface; and responsiveto receiving a selection of a displayed story within the news tickerinterface, displaying additional information related to the context ofthe selected story.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the request fornews ticker content comprises a request by the target user for a socialnetworking system page containing the news ticker.
 3. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the social networking system is continually monitoredfor actions associated with connected users while the news ticker isdisplayed to the target user, and the updating is performed without arequest of the target user.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein theactions associated with users connected to the target user compriseactions performed by users connected to the target user.
 5. The methodof claim 1, wherein the actions associated with users connected to thetarget user comprise actions involving users connected to the targetuser.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein users connected to the targetuser comprises users who have established a connection with the targetuser.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the news ticker interfacecomprises a portion of the social networking system interface adjacentto a newsfeed interface.
 8. The method of claim 7, wherein the newsticker interface comprises a column displaying news ticker storieschronologically.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein updating the newsticker comprises displaying the identified story at the top of the newsticker interface column and shifting one or more other displayed storiesdownward.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein updating the news ticker inreal time comprises continually updating the news ticker responsive toidentifying new monitored actions without requiring input from thetarget user.
 11. The method of claim 1, wherein the additionalinformation is displayed in a dedicated interface adjacent to the newsticker interface.
 12. The method of claim 11, wherein the dedicatedinterface adjacent to the news ticker interface comprises a window. 13.The method of claim 11, wherein the dedicated interface adjacent to thenews ticker interface comprises a column.
 14. The method of claim 1,wherein the selected story comprises an endorsement of an object, andwherein the displayed additional information comprises informationrelated to the object.
 15. The method of claim 1, wherein the selectedstory comprises a communication about an object, and wherein thedisplayed additional information comprises information related to theobject.
 16. The method of claim 15, wherein the object comprises animage, and wherein the displayed additional information comprises thedisplay of the image.
 17. The method of claim 15, wherein the objectcomprises a media item, and wherein the displayed additional informationcomprises the playback of the media item.
 18. The method of claim 15,wherein the object comprises a game, and wherein the displayedadditional information comprises the display of the game.
 19. The methodof claim 1, wherein the selected story comprises a communication, andwherein the displayed additional information comprises additionalcommunications related to the communication.
 20. The method of claim 1,wherein the selected story comprises an establishment of a connectionbetween a user connected to the target user and a third user, andwherein the displayed additional information comprises informationrelated to the third user.
 21. The method of claim 1, wherein theselected story comprises an action related to an event, and wherein thedisplayed additional information comprises information related to theevent.
 22. The method of claim 1, wherein the displayed additionalinformation comprises biographic information associated with theconnected user.
 23. The method of claim 1, wherein the displayedadditional information comprises an image associated with the connecteduser.
 24. A method comprising: monitoring a social networking system foractions associated with users connected to a target user; identifying anaction associated with a user connected to the target user; determiningthe relevance of the identified action to the target user; responsive tothe determined relevance exceeding a pre-determined threshold:displaying the identified action and the identity of the connected useras a feed story in a newsfeed interface, the feed story comprising theidentified action, the identity of the connected user, and informationrelated to the context of the identified action and the connected user;and displaying the identified action and the connected user as a tickerstory in a news ticker interface, the ticker story comprising theidentified action and the identity of the connected user; and responsiveto the determined relevance failing to exceed the pre-determinedthreshold: displaying the identified action and the connected user as aticker story in a news ticker interface, the ticker story comprising theidentified action and the identity of the connected user.
 25. The methodof claim 24, wherein the newsfeed interface and the news tickerinterface comprise adjacent columns within a social networking systeminterface.
 26. The method of claim 24, further comprising, responsive toreceiving a selection of a ticker story by the target user, displayinginformation related to the context of the identified action and theconnected user within the news ticker interface.
 27. The method of claim26, wherein the displaying information related to the context of theidentified action and the connected user comprises one of: displaying animage, playing a media item, displaying event information, displayinginformation about a user, displaying a game, and displayingcommunications related to the action.
 28. A method comprising:continually monitoring for actions associated with users connected to atarget user in a social networking system; responsive to identifying amonitored action associated with a connected user, updating a newsticker in real time to display the identified action and associatedconnected user as a story within a news ticker interface, wherein themost recently identified story is displayed at the top of the newsticker interface; and responsive to receiving a selection of a displayedstory within the news ticker interface, displaying additionalinformation related to the context of the selected story in an interfaceadjacent to the news ticker interface.